A report from the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. "A small group of private certifiers have signed off on 130 buildings with compliance problems, including allowing residents to move into one property that did not have toilets or taps fitted. The role of private certifiers in the state's building standards crisis is under mounting scrutiny, after apartment buildings at Mascot, Sydney Olympic Park, Zetland and Erskineville were abandoned over safety concerns."

"The Owners' Corporation Network, the peak body for apartment owners, said the repeat offending was further evidence of 'deep systemic problems' in the industry. 'It is symptomatic of a government that has forgotten how to regulate,' chairman Phil Gall said."

From ABC News. "The recessionary conditions in construction have deepened, with the industry experiencing the sharpest decline in activity in six years. Ai Group head of policy Peter Burn said the problems were most acute in residential building, while there was a continued drop in commercial construction."

"Builders are also being squeezed by tighter profit margins, with the selling prices index continuing to contract in July. 'This negative reading indicates that rising input prices and other costs are not, on average, being passed on to customers, as profit margins continue to be squeezed for businesses in the construction industry,' Dr Burn said."

From Domain News. "House prices in some of Melbourne’s most popular suburbs have dived over the past year. In trendy Northcote, for example, the median house price dropped 11.9 per cent to $1,171,250 over the 12 months to June, according to the latest Domain House Price Report. A similar pattern held in Brunswick, where the median house price fell 11.6 per cent to $972,500 over the same timeframe."

"'We’ve seen that in Melbourne, that the more expensive areas and suburbs have seen bigger price falls during the correction,' Domain economist Trent Wiltshire said."

From 7 News. "A profit warning from cement maker Adelaide Brighton has highlighted weak conditions in the once-strong construction sector and pounded share prices across the industry. 'The sector should be doing well in this environment on the infrastructure side, but certainly the residential side has fallen off a cliff,' said Daniel Cuthbertson, managing director at Value Point Asset Management."

"Diana Mousina, senior economist at AMP Capital expects activity to fall further still, as infrastructure projects are completed and home starts hold low - adding pressure to Australia's creaking economy. 'There's still weakness to go,' she said. 'We think that there might be about 60,000 job losses related to the downturn in housing.'"

From My Business. "A weaker economy appears to be flowing through to business debts, with one credit insurer reporting a major surge in the number of Australian firms making insurance claims for unpaid invoices. The latest NCI Trade Credit Risk Index, a quarterly survey of credit risks for Australian businesses, recorded a 50 per cent jump in the number trade credit insurance claims made between the March and June quarters this year."

"'An increasing number of Australian businesses are struggling to pay their debts on time or at all, which in turn places increasing cash flow pressure on the businesses they owe,' said Kirk Cheesman, managing director of NCI Trade Credit Solutions. 'According to our latest findings, business conditions for bad debts have hit their riskiest level in three years, so unfortunately, businesses need to consider the possibility of non-payment from their suppliers as insolvency activity rises.'"

From Yahoo Finance. "'The Australian construction industry is critically ill and if you’re the owner of an apartment within a medium- to high-density building that was constructed within the past 20 years, you’ve contracted Australian real estate’s equivalent of the bubonic plague,' said the head of research at property market research firm Propertyology, Simon Pressley."

"'There’s no vaccine for this horrible disease and the best treatment is most likely to sell sooner rather than later,' he said. 'Same-same, mass-produced Lego buildings, appalling governance within the Australian construction industry, embarrassingly poor-quality workmanship, and approximately 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new property representing assorted taxes is a toxic combination.'"

"While there are issues facing the Australian apartment market, panicked selling is not a good idea, the chief economist of realestate.com.au, Nerida Conisbee told Yahoo Finance. 'I don't think it's a good time now to sell if you're in the market, unless you have to, obviously,' she said. 'I don't think panic selling is ever a good thing.'"